Can I leave it at that?

No, I didn’t really think that would fly.  So, I’ll give it a try.  I arrived in Berlin on a Saturday in the middle of February, after a smooth 5.5-hour train ride, only to take way too long to figure out what the deal is with the S-bahn.  Fortunately, once this small matter was resolved, I made it to the hostel just fine, and it was smooth sailing.

This was my first time staying in a hostel on my own, so I surprised myself at how quickly (for me, mind you) I managed to get over my awkwardness and interact with some of the other people staying there.  It helps that having a Kindle is a good conversation starter (yes, sometimes, I am a tool).  These folks included a couple of Belgians, Canadians, Israelis, Americans, and a German guy writing an article on hostel culture in Berlin (totally stole Kimberly’s idea), plus some scattered others.  The usual.  Somehow, I managed to come off as a vaguely decent conversationalist, so two other girls in my room who were traveling together invited me to go out with them that night, which was a good start.  They were actually really interesting to talk to on our way over, and we had a good time.  The night would also feature my first slip on ice (3 more to come!), thanks to Berlin’s utter inability to clear ice from any of its sidewalks.  Anywhere.  (I think it’s revenge for my not falling down the last couple of times I went ice-skating.)  Despite this minor setback, it was a great night and an excellent introduction to the city!

Which brings me to an important point: although Berlin was an icy slushy mess, I really found it to be an amazing city that I have very much fallen in love with.  It also helps that I happen to be a fan of “Berlin-vacation” me.  So, let us continue:

The rest of the week was basically a big musuem/art/exploring/burrito binge.  Sunday, I went on the New Berlin Free Tour, which I highly recommend.  Cold, I then scurried into the not-lowkey Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral) to warm up and take in my first panoramic view of the city.  The skyline may be limited, but it does have its cool moments; besides, you know I love (or something like it) that Soviet architecture.  That night, I also followed Dorota’s advice and ended up making a last minute decision to go on a pub crawl.  On a Sunday night.  Whatevs…a good time was had by all.

Over the next few days, I basically never sat down, since I lived in museums.  It was sort of like “Oh whoa, the Gates of Babylon and a giant Greek temple, but oh wait, check out that Vermeer and half the paintings from my Durer seminar, but hey, there’s an East Berlin living room over there and you can open the drawers, and what’s up with that video installation with all the flour on the typewriter(?), which I’m looking at in a train station, and WHOA it’s Nefertiti’s head (yes, as beautiful as they say) just chilling in the most awesomely reconstructed museum I’ve ever been to, but oh yeah, a guy from high school designed this one.

Meanwhile, I got to know a few of the other people in the hostel, including the most Canadians I’ve ever hung out with at once outside of Canada.   Our nights consisted of fresh popcorn and “fresh” doner kebabs, mechanical monsters and discarded Christmas trees, which were inevitably carried or dragged halfway back to the hostel, squat bars and “communist” wine bars (you pay €2 for the glass, fill it as many times as you want, and then throw however much you think you owe into a jar on the way out), snowball fights and brunch quests, birthday cake (don’t worry: not for me) and then beer on the hostel because of it, and other such delights.  Also, roasting marshmallows on a candle at a wine bar with a bunch of Brits is always a plus.

And, of course, there was the “it’s such a small world” moment.  This occurred my 2nd or 3rd day there, when I was absentmindedly flipping through the fliers and postcards at the hostel and talking to the German journalist.  I got to one with a picture of a girl on it, and thought to myself, wait, I know that person.  With a literal double take, I realized that it was one the YDN editors from the year before mine, and she was advertising the monthly English-language comedy open mic she hosts.  Go figure.  I broke my internet blackout to email her and she responded right away and we decided I would join her for one of the “alternative” city tours she gives (same company as the free tour), which I did.  This involved visiting some artists squats, looking at street art, visiting the Turkish market, and ending with the East Side Gallery.  And of course a fair amount of catching up.  Turns out she’s leading tours, doing the comedy thing, and editing the arts section of Berlin’s monthly English magazine or something.  Sweet gig.

To conclude (damn this is long), Berlin is wonderful and the trip was splendid!  I was super impressed by how many people just up & move to Berlin (there were several at the hostel, plus the girl from YDN) and how it just seems to work out.  You know, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea…

Cześć!

2) I also learned that all of “EuroTrip” was filmed in Prague, which was also a win of sorts.

3) Since 1/2 the things in Prague are named after Charles IV, it finally dawned on me that the Polish equivalent of my name is Karolina. Only took me 8 months.  Also, not as good as Szarlotka.

4) I realized that I know/can recognize enough basic Polish words that I actually have an advantage when dealing with Czech.  That’s something, right?

Just for some context, I’ve just returned from a lovely long weekend in Praha with the parents.

Also, I am well aware of the fact that this is my first post in almost 2 months, which is way too long.  Over my long Easter weekend, I promise to add my long overdue posts on my wonderful Berlin trip, my day at the circus (after stumbling upon it by chance with Dorota), Warsaw Diversity Weekend (when all othe other AIESEC interns in Poland came to Warsaw), my weekend in beautiful Wrocław (gnomes and 19th century painted panormas and all!), the haphazard arrival of spring to Warsaw, and other random tidbits. 

Stay tuned!  For real this time.

Cześć!

1) For example, kids can sneeze on your face.  While your mouth is open.

2) Or, as they are settling into their cots for naptime, they may puke all over themselves and their bedding.  Apparently, their stomachs can fit more in them than you might expect.  Remarkably, most of the other kids sleep right through this and the ensuing commotion.

3) Sometimes, if they attend a small preschool and they are all home sick, and if you are not informed of this too late, you can hop off the bus, turn right around, and then go ice-skating.  You will also not fall down while ice-skating, but will be graceful and will enjoy yourself immensely.  If it is windy and snowing at that time (which it will be) and you happen to be wearing non-waterproof mascara, you will also leave the ice looking like a scary monster.  The presumably not sick children at the rink on a class trip will not fail to notice this. 

But that’s ok, because you were ice-skating instead of getting sneezed on.

Off to Berlin tomorrow!  Hopefully, all those germs I’ve been exposed to won’t attack me while I’m there.

Cześć!

 So let’s see, how about some Important Lessons?

1) I’m pretty sure our neighbors hate us.  Or at least one them does, as the visit from the cops at our houseWARMing party Friday night would indicate.  Just a warning, according to Dorota, so we didn’t have to send everyone home right away, but it was a bit of nuisance.  The good news is that the party was a successful followup to our Halloween bonanza, but this time with makeshift Mojitos (think mint syrup instead of actual mint and the cheapest rum you can find) and not-quite-Sex on the Beach (think minus the peach schnapps and with cranberry-blueberry juice instead of cranberry juice) rather than Apple Pie Shots.  Yes, a good time was had by all.

2) The best part of the #1 is that I have a hunch the complaint came from our across-the-hall neighbor, an old lady in a wheelchair who yells at people from her window to buy her cigarettes.  No, you will not be reimbursed.  Plus, her dog barks loudly.

3) Going on a photo walk when it is 17F (not counting windchill) is not good for your fingers.

4) Apparently it is acceptable here to show a movie that is supposed to start at 7pm at 6pm instead without warning.  So much for “Polish Movies with English Subtitles.”

5) Saxon Gardens at night in the snow with just the right amount of giant gazebo visible through leafless trees=beautiful (no, of course, I didn’t have my camera with me; I thought I would be just sitting down to watch a Polish classic, not walking back 2 hours early with time to kill)

6) I can now make really good lasagna.  Plus, I get 8 frozen dinners out of it.

7) Polish ducks don’t mind the snow.  The flock(?) chilling by the Saxon Gardens tram stop at least seemed to be doing ok.  Poles really are a hardy bunch.  Except for Dorota.

Ok, that’s enough education for one day…

Cześć!

Wait.  Isn’t it the other way around?  Nope, not on this side of the curtain.

Basically, no matter how crowded or empty the bus, tram, or metro, there is always at least one seat left empty and always at least one person standing.  It’s impressive enough that this is the one city I’ve been to where people actually seeem eager to offer their seats to the elderly, injured, and pregnant (meanwhile, I just generally try to avoid sitting near doors), but the clear aversion riders have to taking the last seat takes the cake, as they say.  And, yes, you will get a few raised eyebrows for taking said seat without some clear physical justification.  Compare this to Hong Kong, where passengers spare no elbowing or dodging to get a precious seat, or New York, where riders are more likely to spend an entire ride studying a Dr. Zizmor ad than acknowledge that they noticed the pregnant woman with a broken leg standing next to them. 

This aversion is particularly striking when the vehicle is packed with people standing, considering that if someone (or two or three) would just sit down, well, it would be a bit less crowded and I could actually reach a pole (the metal kind blocked by all the Poles refusing to sit) for balance.  Yesterday, for example, I got on a 2-tiered bus and squeezed through the crowd standing by the open area by the door, so I could stand between the two halves, where I assumed there would be more room, only to find three seats unoccupied. 

Someone, please, just sit down!

On the bright side, today’s high is 28F, which is 10 degrees up from yesterday.  Oh, and I finally got around to starting to plan my trip during the second week of February.  Yay Berlin!

Cześć!

The only downside was that I had to remove the happy couple from their perch on the hallway shelf to make this magic happen.  Don’t worry; they will be reinstated shortly.

Bonus points if you get the reference of the title.

Cześć

PS: I’m taking the 2nd week of February off to travel.  Anyone around?

PPS: No additonal sightings of the mustachoed nun, unfortunately.

Just to backtrack for a bit, the 4 days or so at Dorota’s grandparents’ house were a nice change of pace, and it was nice to see a different side of Poland–not to mention the site of Dorota’s childhood!  We basically consumed a lot of homemade Polish food (particularly flaki and various cakes), courtesy of her grandma, and watched TV, where I discovered exciting and bizarre Polish music videos, game shows, and soap operas.  There was also a sitcom in which the main character, unable to procure any foreign guests to his New Year’s Eve (erm…Sylwester!) party, decides to have his family members dress up in “ethnic” costume.  Apparently black face isn’t a big deal here.  Also, most foreign shows and films, except for kids ones and cartoons, are not dubbed, but rather, are “translated” by a monotone male voice speaking over the actors.  This made for an interesting viewing of The Poltergeist, a movie well known for its calm tone.

This is not to say that we did not brave the snow and venture out.  We did.  There’s not a whole lot going on in the village during the off-season, but Dorota did give me a great tour, pointing out the houses where her elementary school friends live, her family’s fields, and the small building that housed the 1-room library that she read her way through before moving to America , as well as and showing me her old school/wedding reception venue.  The houses were an intersting mix of simple, undecorated cinderblock cubes and colorful, comfortable-looking houses.  Dorota also highlighted the houses of town characters, ranging from the town drunks to the old teacher who became nice to kids only after retiring.  On New Year’s Day, I went with Dorota and her uncle to church out of general curiosity (for Sylwester, the night before, we went with two of her childhood friends to a club in Sandomierz).  Yes, I went to church, and yes, people definitely noticed that I was the only one in the room not praying.  There, the priest made the announced that he would be visiting the houses on Dorota’s street the next day to stop by and bless them and such.  Dorota and I spent much of the next morning watching her neighbors waiting anxiously in the cold for the priest to show up, as reports circulated on the phone about his whereabouts; like I said, there’s not much else going on during the off season.  When, he finally arrived, I hid upstairs like the good heathen I am.  Oh, and I saw a horse pulling a train of sleighs with kids on them.  It’s safe to say that Dorota and I had slightly different childhoods.  And it made for a lovely trip.

We also did make a detour into Sandomierz one evening, and I can confirm that it is a beautiful little city.  I got to see only outdoor stuff since most things were already closed, but the quick peak into the cathedral as they shut the lights off was impressive. 

Anyway, since I’ve been back in Warsaw, I’ve been putting my new printer to good use and been busy making flashcards after work.  (OK, not all the time)  And I’ve been using the weekends to do a bit more exploring.  Last Friday, Candy showed Dorota and me an actually spicy Asian restaurant(!!!), to which we returned again this Friday.  This was followed by an exploration of Warsaw’s most over-the-top movie theater to see Avatar (hey, I still like to feel that I am somehow still connected to America).  The next day, I wandered around Praga (by myself!  oh my!) and checked out the modern art museum in its temporary space, which actually had some interesting stuff from Poland and the surrounding countries.  Etc, etc. 

This weekend has been good too, though I failed to get a costume together for the flying-themed birthday party Dorota and I attended.  Saturday night, after going to the middle of nowhere for our haircuts, the two of us went with an AIESECer, Igor, to a Filharmonia Narodowa (National Philharmonic) concert, which was great.  I was a bit bummed about getting back to Warsaw, at first, but I’m to report that I’m getting over that hiccup.

And Sunday, I will finally get around to planning my travels for the 2nd week of February, which I have off.  If you have suggestions, please let me know!

Ok, this post is long.  I will try to go back to posting more regularly to avoid this rambling and so that I can fit in more random observations, such as those on public transportation etiquette unlike any I’ve seen before.  Get excited.  But for now…

Cześć!

That was all before 3pm, while my aunt, cousin, and I went to the Liège Christmas market.  Opening presents later that afternoon revealed more chocolates and treats (an excellent mix of Belgian, Polish, and even American–yay for Bloomingdale’s chocolate peppermint sticks!) and then there was Christmas Eve dinner, at my aunt’s cousin’s house and more food and drink were consumed.  That routine was pretty much repeated throughout the trip with occasional variations in the relatives present, and I of course made sure we went to Chez Rabah for cous cous and merguez one night, and we managed to squeeze in some boulet frites just before my flight on Sunday.  Mmmm…you just can’t get that in Warsaw (not counting my refridgerator full of chocolate).

So in case you haven’t deduced this yet: yes, I had a wonderful trip.  I even bought new shoes, so my intense snow boots aren’t my only option in snow dustings anymore (guess what: it’s snowing in Warsaw again).  Plus, I went with 2 of my cousins and their friends to an old piano-quasi-karaoke bar that apparently my grandparents once frequented.  Works for me.  Unfortunately, my French is quite rusty.  Guess I’ll just have to go back to Belgium soon…

I will end this with a note on 2 successes: 1) I managed to fit all of my presents (including 2 Potato Heads and other oddly shaped objects) in my bags for the return flight, and 2) Candy and I tried the sketchy-looking Chinese restaurant across the courtyard from our apartment for dinner today and did not die.  Neither of us had ever seen anyone go in or out the front door and all the windows are shaded, so it was all very mysterious.  It’s actually an over-decorated acceptable Chinese restaurant with weird compartments around some of the tables.  It’s also very large.  I don’t know how they make any money.

Tomorrow, I’m off to join Dorota at her grandparents’ house and farm in Sandomierz.  I’ll finally see where my fool of a roommate came from.  Hopefully, I will get off at the right stop.

Happy New Year!

Cześć!

So, our new neighbors may not be our biggest fans.  I don’t know this for sure, as I have not actually met any of them yet, but considering that Dorota and I (and too a certain extent Candy) spent all of last Monday night into Tuesday morning hauling our stuff from our old apartment to our new one along cobblestone sidewalks and up an echo-chamber of a stairwell, I can’t imagine we’re the new favorites.  Showing up as a zombie at work the next day as a result also probably didn’t help with winning over the kids either.  I would like to thank my former landlord for telling us last minute that we absolutely had to be out by Tuesday evening (when I wouldn’t be able to get back from work until 8pm), only to inform us Tuesday afternoon that he actually couldn’t meet to get the keys and close us out until days later.  But, I have to say, the new pad was worth the sore arms and sleep deprivation.  Not having a bar cutting across my back every night makes a big difference. Even waiting for the internet to arrive on Friday wasn’t so bad this time around.

But all that was a mere sidenote to the busy 10 days of Tyler’s visit to Warsaw (I sent him off to Prague Monday night to Wednesday. Ah yes, we climbed (took the elevator) to the top of the Pałac Kultury I Nauki (a loving gift from Russia), took in the nighttime sights, endured the wind, and then spotted the ice-skating rink below. I am pleased to report that I am a better ice-skater than Tyler, even though I was the only one of us who fell, thanks entirely to the young Polish gentleman who plowed into me. We were locked out of both the Chopin Museum and Holy Cross Church (where Chopin’s heart rests), but managed to eat Chinese, Indian, Italian and Mexican fare, in addition to a few too many McFlurries. I assure you we ate good Polish, as well, though the culinary highlight of his trip had to be the potato latkes we made, being the good Jews that we are. Fortunately, these were less haphazard than the menorah we devised, consisting of 7 candles in red holders left over from Halloween plus one red scented candle from Ikea placed on upside down white plastic cups, lined up with a tall white candle in a clear holder left over from Halloween placed on a larger clear upside down cup. Hey, it worked. We even got Dorota in on the act. (Running low on matches for the last 2 nights was fun. Ever try lighting low candles with mini paper napkins and sticks?)

Or perhaps the pinnacle of our food journey was actually the batch of chocolate chunk cookies we made (you try finding baking soda in the 24-hour Footem, alright, fine, Społem, but the font on the sign really is confusing) in our new OVEN. Mmmm…  Oh and I also got Tyler hooked on Monster Munch.  How could I not?

Let’s see, we also shared a chuckle over all the sex shops and 24-hour alcohol stores located just nearby on Al. Jana Pawła II (yes that John Paul II), while racing to our various destinations, because, yes, it was really very cold. And snowy. I’ve already worn my intense snow boots more than I did all of last winter. And I have to say that for a city so used to be being snowed and rained on, they really did design their stairs and sidewalks to be as slippery as possible. Fortunately, the below 20° F weather seems to have left with Tyler, just as it arrived with him.

These temperatures made our weekend jaunt to Krakow a bit of a challenge, since it was hard to stay outside for extended (or short) periods of time to take in all the beauty (and, really, they are not kidding when they say it is an absolutely beautiful city). This problem was heightened by the fact that we managed to sleep through our alarm Saturday morning, causing us to miss our morning train, forcing us to take an afternoon train instead, such that we did not arrive until after dark. For this reason, we were unfortunately unable to visit Auschwitz, but I certainly will soon (may I note that the sign was stolen from the site around the time Tyler bought the train tickets to Krakow and was recovered just after we returned to Warsaw, when it was guaranteed we would not be visiting this trip…noticing a trend here?). Still, we were able to walk (hastily) around the Old Town, which is great, with a stop in the super Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady before dinner (later on in the night, we were momentarily worried that we had been locked out of the hotel, until someone finally came to the door, rousing the man sleeping on the floor behind the desk). The next day, we started with pastries before heading to Wawel Royal Castle and Cathedral. They are remarkably well preserved (don’t forget to put the plastic covers on your shoes in the castle) and stunning. Seriously. There are even a bunch of carved heads sticking out of and looking down from the ceiling in the Throne Room. I have no idea why, but it’s incredible. We had to race through the cathedral a bit in order to catch the train, mainly because we couldn’t help ourselves from trying to see more and more of it. Yes, I must say, I cannot wait to go back to Krakow, hopefully for a longer trip next time, since there is still so much to see. Interested?

Otherwise, classes are winding down before the Christmas break, and I will be off to Belgium Wednesday night until Sunday night (I was originally told I would have work on Monday). I also learned from the hostile man at the post office today that my cards are too small for the Polish postal system. Way to go.

Cześć!

1) Stove top Thanksgiving was a success: Despite the lack of an oven or any experience cooking Thanksgiving dinner (besides my oven-dependent annual apple pie), I somehow saw to it that my flatmates and I were well fed with quasi-traditional fare.  Sure, the turkey was not stuffed and the cranberries were actually żurawina (something like lingonberries for all you Ikea fans out there) and the cream I bought turned out to be something not quite cream and chopping shallots was very much a runny mascara funfest, but the meal hit the spot, in my humble opinion.  It was also Dorota’s most American Thanksgiving ever!    The menu: Scaloppine of White Meat with Shiitake [rather, some Polish almost equivalent] and Brandy Sauce, Cranberry [żurawina] Relish with Grapefruit and Mint [required buying an actual mint plant in dirt and everything], Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans with Garlic and Ginger, with chocolate Święty Mikołaj (figure it out) for dessert.  Gathering the ingredients took visits to two markets (and their various stalls), 4 supermarkets, and 1 international food store, and the sweet potatoes were a lucky last-minute find.

2) We’re Movin’ on Up!: That’s right, we found a new apartment.  Or rather, someone from AIESEC found one and we checked it out and approved.  It’s a bit farther from the metro (so I’ll have to set my alarm about 7 minutes earlier), but much bigger and cleaner and quieter.  Plus, there’s an oven and no need for bunk beds.  Now you know you want to visit!  We get the keys this week, so we can start moving out soon.

3) I found a good source of hummus: It’s hidden at the end of a long dirt driveway behind a library, but the store and restaurant were full.  Clearly I am not the only person in Warsaw who was missing this.  This also happened to be on Harvard-Yale day, so I did the 40-minute walk each way fully decked out in Yale gear.  Fox Sports is right.  We are geeks.

4) Party Crashing: I managed to crash two birthday parties of AIESECers over the past couple of weekends, one actually totally inadvertently (the first was only quasi-crashing, and I’d rather not go into detail…).  After a late dinner at a decent and cheap Vietnamese place on Friday, I led Candy and a Filipino friend of hers visiting from Wrocław into the downstairs section of a funky bar I like, when we stumbled upon a table of AIESECers we sort of knew, which led to an awkward exchange of surprised looks, resulting into them being required to invite us to join and us being require to accept.  After a couple of awkward head nods around the table (and by around the table, I mean by me), the birthday girl offered us some chocolate, and it was smooth sailing, or close enough, from there.  I still don’t know if they know we were there by accident or not, but it worked out.  I am also happy to report that my ability to handle the “Oh, wow, you go/went to Yale; you must be really smart” conversation thread has improved significantly since freshman year, or rather, I’ve just come to accept that I will sound pretentious to myself no matter what.

5) A bit of Africa in Warsaw: I went to an event at the Africa center in Warsaw.  I think I’ll learn to drum, even if the lessons are in Polish.

6) Święty Mikołaj is Coming to Town…: Or rather, he came to town today (Sunday), for his big day.  Don’t worry, though, he’ll be back for Christmas too.  He just can’t get enough of this place.  To celebrate, I went with Candy and a couple of Filipino and one Italian visitors for the weekend from the other cities in Poland where they are working (there was a Christmas party at the Philippine embassy today that they were in town for) went to the Old Town, where they finally turned on all the holiday lights.  We checked out the holiday market, where I sampled a bunch of cookies and foods that were delicious and yet remain quite mysterious to me, as in I have no idea what they are called or what is in them.  I also had some mulled wine, which made walking around particularly pleasant.  This was after a very nice meal of Filipino food in our flat and was followed by much more food and drink in various venues around the city (since it gets dark so early here, we were done with the Old Town before 7pm).  We later met up with two trainees from China, both very nice, who are working in other cities, so by the end of the night, I may have been in the middle of the highest concentration of Asians in Poland.  I exaggerate.  But barely.

6a) Tyler is coming to town…: Woot!

7) I am not Polish: despite what an increasing number of people seem to assume about me.

“Home” for the holidays: I’ve booked my ticket to Belgium for Christmas, so it’s cool to have that set.  It’ll be weird not being home for the holidays, but it’ll be nice to try something different and to still be with some family.  I will also have an unlimited supply of speculoos.  Unfortunately, when I booked, I thought (because my schedule said so), that I would have work on the 28th, so I bought my return ticket for the 27th. Then, my boss changed her mind, so I don’t have work between Christmas and New Year’s, which is excellent news, though I probably just paid too much for my plane ticket for no reason.  So life goes.  Besides, it’ll be VACATION!

9) The BEST place in Warsaw: The Young Learners Resource Center.  Yes, I may be a tool, but hey, they have a laminating machine.

10) it’s chill: That’s the generally mood of the last few weeks.  But would you really expect any different from me?

That’s all I can think of for now, and I really should go to bed soon and still need to draw a yo-yo and then cut apart the Christmas flashcards before I can do that.  The exciting life of an English teacher…

Also, I promise to get back to posting regularly.  Speaking of which, this post is dedicated to Roxanne for heckling me into finally posting again.  I expect a radio shout out soon…

Cześć!